Speaker of the week: Dick Costolo

The former improv comedian turned successful entrepreneur and business executive, Dick Costolo, will speak at Nordic Business Forum 2016 under the theme of digitalization.

Twitter has become one of the most popular social media platforms of today. As the CEO of Twitter from 2010 to 2015, Costolo led the company’s growth from a few hundred to a few thousand employees. Furthermore, in the course of those years the active user group amounted to more than 284 million. Costolo was also in the lead of Twitter when the company went public and when it launched the “Promoted Tweets” opportunity for advertisers.

Before his tenure at Twitter, Costolo co-founded three different digital media companies. The latest, FeedBurner, was acquired by Google, which resulted in Costolo to work at Google for a while. In 2009 he joined Twitter as a Chief Operating Officer and only a year later he was named CEO.

At Twitter, Costolo was the voice of transparency, free speech and access for all. These issues have been also incorporated into the platform. Twitter is no longer just an instant messaging application, but a forum that enables people to have direct access to information and distribute their perspectives of stories instantly.

In addition to being an appreciated CEO by the employees during his time at Twitter, Costolo also impressed other business thinkers and leaders. In 2013, Business Insider referred to him as “one of the Silicon Valley’s most impressive CEOs” and same year TIME Magazine included him in the list of 40 Most Influential Minds in Tech.

In January 2016, Costolo announced he is starting a new fitness company. “We’re building a software platform that reimagines the path to personal fitness”, he said. Taking into consideration his impressive background as an entrepreneur and a business executive, we expect to hear more of his new undertaking soon.

At Nordic Business Forum 2016, Costolo will speak under the theme of digitalization based on his experiences at multiple digital media companies.

Top picks from the speaker:

• If you are interested in learning more about Costolo’s time at Twitter, you can listen to his audiobook ‘Managing Twitter, the Social Media Giant’ that gives some insight on his leadership practices.
• Transparency at workplaces is also something Costolo has been rooting for. Watch this Fortune interview to see what he says on the subject.
• In his article ‘Why Tech Firms Are Set To Face Complex Ethical Issues’ in the Guardian magazine, Costolo dives deeper into the subject of access and how Twitter and other new medias have changed the flow of information.

More on Dick Costolo:

On Twitter: @dickc

Bio: https://www.nbforum.com/nbf2016/speakers/dick-costolo/

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